Skylar Sutton

Sport Marketing and Management major.



Projects by Skylar Sutton

News Story

NIL Decision Shifts Landscape of College Athletics

By Caitlin Murphy, Skylar Sutton and Jaycie Cress

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (Nov. 5. 2024)

Crowds are gathered at Indiana Memorial Stadium, thousands of people are decked out in red and white face paint, and striped overalls. The stands have filled exponentially over the course of the football team’s undefeated 9-0 winning streak. Fans ranging from students and staff to alumni and fans from around the country fill in the stands in anticipation of seeing a good football game. Each person in these stands are expecting more from the football players than they have in years past. Because of this unexpected, undefeated winning streak, Indiana has become more popular in the sports industry and its athletes are gathering more prosperity and popularity than they have in the past.

Big Noon, Barstool and College Game Day arrive at Indiana University all in the same season, shocking college football fans from all over the country. Giving IU more recognition in the football world on social media, moving unsuspecting people to root for them and their strong efforts of working well as a team to have a good season. Raising the question: How are these athletes getting recognized for their accomplishments?

Football linebacker Isaiah Jones walks through Indiana Memorial Stadium
Indiana University football linebacker Isaiah Jones walks us through Indiana Memorial Stadium to get a behind the scenes look. We sat down with Jones and interviewed him on his view of the name, image and likeness ruling and listened to how he felt about the situation. Photo taken by Caitlin Murphy

 

College athletes, for many years, were accustomed to getting scholarships to play their sport at specific schools that wanted them. The talent the recruiters saw was put in place to give the athletes money to play the sport for the school; making them better athletes. However, just a few years ago, the NCAA put out a new approach on how athletes should be able to handle their money.

In a transformative shift for college athletics, the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) agreement, set on July 1st, 2021, has revolutionized how college athletes monetize their personal brands, how it has shifted the strategy of recruitment, and how it has raised questions regarding the fairness of the sports. As the universities and NCAA adapt to this new reality, the landscape of college athletics is rapidly changing.

Dr. Galen Clavio holds a press conference for C250
Dr. Galen Clavio, associate professor at Indiana University answers multiple students questions in C250. Clavio conducted a “news conference” on name, image and likeness which informed students about the NCAA’s recent ruling. Photo taken by Emma Pearce

Just a few weeks ago Dr. Galen Clavio, director of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University, conducted a “news conference” in the C250 lecture hall to provide information about NIL to hundreds of students. Clavio answered multiple questions from students who gained insight from an industry professional that provided the basics the students were grateful to hear. “IU is selling out games, not because they have a popular NIL base, or overly known players, it is simply because they have a good team,” Clavio said to the students.

While NIL is well regarded for most colleges and their athletes, not all are seen the same on the basis of distribution of money and the use put to the promotions of the athletes. Giving them more leeway into doing what they want with the money they get from NIL, providing a fan base of people who like the sponsorships they do or the commercials they are in, and leading people to buying tickets to their games. This pushes the focus of college athletics into a popularity contest with the promotions they can get from the money provided from playing for that particular school, rather than by just playing. Isaiah Jones, a redshirt sophomore linebacker at IU said, “[NIL] has made college athletics as close to professional sports as possible, because now players are getting played to play.” He explains how he chose Indiana from the beginning when the transfer portal wasn’t directly affecting him and most players. However, Jones explained, “The NIL will affect where players want to play, the portal, and how coaches recruit.”

IU football player Isaiah Jones answers questions about NIL.
Interviewers sat with Isaiah Jones to ask him questions about his opinions on the NIL decision as a college athlete. Jones said about his opinion on NIL, “I think it opens up some recognition from younger guys, which affects transfer portals, and where people want to go.” Photo taken by Caitlin Murphy

NIL has changed the way sports are played and viewed, shifting the landscape to something bigger and broader than just playing sports. Looking toward the future, while this is seen in more well-known colleges, the NIL is expanding and is subject to change as it grows within the realm of sports. Yet, this hasn’t been seen at smaller private schools such as Princeton, where the players do not get the same benefits for doing the same sports as the athletes at schools with NIL. But, there is still time for the NCAA’s decision to make its way over to them. Overall we have seen how this shift in the landscape of college athletics has prospered with the influx of deals and sponsorships and how this will continue to grow as different sports that were once underrated become more popular.

https://iu.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/t/1_z5wc0vy9?st=0&ed=99[/kaltura]

On October 20, 2024, Indiana University students shared their opinion on the NIL ruling. Past and present students were asked about what they know about NIL in general and how they think it will affect college athletes in the future. 

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Public Relations Story

Tim Cook unveils Apple Watch

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contacts:
Skylar Sutton, Editor
Sterling Thomas, Photographer
Charlie Smith, Writer

The Apple Watch was Announced at the Latest Apple Release Event.

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA (September 9th, 2024) – The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, announced that Apple would be releasing a new product called the Apple Watch to the public.

The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, announced the Apple watch on Monday, at the Flint Center at De Anza College located  in Cupertino, California. Apple held its Apple Computer, Inc., special release event this past Monday, at this event Apple announced the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 plus, Apple Pay, IOS 8, and the Apple Watch. “…But we aren’t quite finished yet, we have one more thing…” Tim Cook said just before announcing the Apple Watch, and the crowd went wild.

Tim Cook shared all of the features that the Apple watch had to offer. A few of these features included, being a precise and customizable timepiece, a new more intimate way to communicate, a comprehensive health and fitness device, an interactive watch face and digital crown, and made for everyday wear. “…but the heart of the watch is a custom design chip that integrates many subsystems into one remarkably compact module which is then completely encapsulated to protect the electronics, it’s essentially miniaturizing an entire computer system onto a single chip…” Jony Ive, Senior VP of design, said as he was describing the complexity of the design to the crowd.

Ramzi Smith, an Indiana University student, uses his Apple Watch while on a run. He is tracking his steps, heart rate, and calories burned.

As Kevin Lynch, The VP of Apple, did a live demo people were able to see some of the promised features first hand. Lynch explained that people can pick different watch faces, control music and volume, reply to text, look and reply to emails, use Siri, look at photos close up, zoom into maps, and get notifications from all the apps that the consumer may want notifications from. Apple Inc. incorporated a new feature that had never been utilized in a device before and that is communicative touch vibrations between Apple watches. “… and I can communicate with someone just by tapping… if I tap right in the center I can create this new form of digital touch communication with Jeff… That’s not an emoji, that is actually reading the heart rate off of Jeff’s wrist with Apple watch…” Kevin said as he demonstrated the digital touch feature with his friend Jeff on the Apple Watch.

James Rubey, a manager at Kilroys on Kirkwood, using his Apple Watch while working. He tracks venue events via group chats without needing his phone.

A more detailed description of the Apple watch was also released after the press event.  The 38mm Apple watch had a height of 38.6 mm and a width of 33.3 mm, while the larger version of the Apple watch (42 mm) was 42.0 mm in height and 35.9 mm in width. When the consumer purchases an Apple Watch the box will contain The Apple Watch, a magnetic charging cable, a USB power adapter, a watch band, and a quick start guide. The Apple watch is only compatible with the iPhone 5 or higher models of the iPhone.

The Apple watch was also announced to be compatible with  English (Australia, UK, U.S.), Chinese (Simplified, Traditional, Traditional Hong Kong), French (Canada, France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish (Latin America, Mexico, Spain), Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese speakers.  The Apple watch also has some features that weren’t specifically mentioned at the release event, but later released after the event. The Apple watch has speakers as well as a microphone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, up to 18 hours of battery life, water resistant (NOT Waterproof), and watchOS 2.

Apple would like for future consumers to understand and appreciate all of the features and benefits that the Apple watch was promised to have. As of September 9th the Apple Watch information has been added to the internet. Apple Inc. had the intention of providing the public with a smart and more personalized watch that also has the ability to monitor health problems as well.